Oil wealth is accelerating Guyana’s development

- financial analyst says

By Trina Williams

DESPITE the myriad of fallacies uttered by the Opposition’s economist Elson Low, Financial Analyst Joel Bhagwandin managed to keep his slate clean as he presented strong empirical evidence as to why he believes Guyana is on the right path to development.

During a heated yet informative Oxford-style debate on Wednesday, at the University of Guyana’s George Walcott Lecture Theatre, Low, who was putting forth arguments as to why he believes that Guyana is not on the right path to development given its new-found oil resources, went head to head with Bhagwandin.

Highlighting that development does not occur overnight, Bhagwandin said that Guyana’s development must be done in a sustainable manner. He said that given the implementations made by the policymakers of today, Guyana is out of harm’s way and forging ahead on an aggressive path to advancement.

Pointing out the baseless argument made by Low that there has been no long-term planning for Guyana’s future, the financial analyst not only debunked this point but also underscored that the nation’s developmental path started three decades ago.

As a result of this, he said that Guyanese are able to see a former bankrupt country making strides not only in the regional arena, but also in the international one.

Accenting Guyana’s stagnated economy during the 90s, which consisted of a negative growth rate, the devaluation of the Guyana dollar and the high interest rates, Bhagwandin stated: “Our country has undergone several eras of structural transformation and there was a time in our country where our debt was nine times the size of the economy.”

Addressing the several areas that pose a challenge to the nation’s current development, he said that the first issue is the human resources and the labour constraints. As he highlighted his reasoning, he stressed the seriousness of this matter and noted that a country’s most important resources are its people. With less than five per cent of the working population possessing a tertiary-level education and the labour-participation rate being 49 per cent, which has been the lowest since 1991, the financial analyst said these figures outline the huge skill deficit Guyana has to fill.

“Our most important resource is not oil, it’s the people… we have a huge human resources problem in terms of skills,” he remarked, adding that Guyana does not have a shortage of jobs, but instead there is a lack of participation.

Touching on the series of infrastructural works such as road networks being built, which are long overdue, Bhagwandin commented that Guyana does not lack longterm planning but instead, one must take into account the current developmental challenges hindering the progression.

“So we have not been short of long-term planning but we have to appreciate our development challenges and constraints which prevented us from achieving most of these development agendas…” he added.

Bhagwandin further stated that the newly-found oil wealth is not a vehicle that is going to stifle Guyana’s economic growth, but instead it is simply there to accelerate the country’s development.

He also emphasised that many, including Low, fail to recognise that before oil and gas, Guyana did achieve many accomplishments when compared to its former state of bankruptcy.

With Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and its per capita income soaring, along with the resurrection of the net international reserves, which occurred during the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) administration in 2014, the financial analyst remarked that these are some of Guyana’s successes prior to the newly-found oil wealth.

“The investments of today and all the infrastructure is for the future,” he said.

Moreover, he debunked his opponent’s argument that the funding of the gasto-shore project is unconstitutional and challenged him to indicate which provision within the country’s supreme law states that, which Low failed to do.

Bhagwandin further expounded on how the Local Content Act (2021) along with the gas-to-shore project are some of the current government’s most outstanding implementations.